For a qualitative or quantitative analysis of the components contained in a sample, a chromatograph mass spectrometer is widely used, which is an apparatus including a chromatograph, such as a gas chromatograph (GC) or liquid chromatograph (LC), combined with a mass spectrometer, such as a quadrupole mass analyzer.
In a chromatograph mass spectrometer, a plurality of components in a sample temporally separated by the chromatograph are sequentially introduced into the mass spectrometer, in which a qualitative or quantitative analysis of those components is performed.
To perform a qualitative or quantitative analysis of a sample using a chromatograph mass spectrometer, specific ions which characterize the analyte compound are previously set as the target ion and qualifier ion. For each of a variety of compounds, one or more combinations of ions are previously designated as the target ion and qualifier ion, and stored in a database, based on the result of a mass spectrometry performed for a standard sample of the compound concerned. An analysis operator refers to this database and sets the target ion and qualifier ion. The compound is identified (qualitatively determined) using the intensity ratio (or area ratio) between the peak in a mass chromatogram of the target ion and the peak in a mass chromatogram of the qualifier ion obtained by a chromatographic mass spectrometry of the sample, while the quantity of the compound is determined from the intensity (or area) of the peak in the mass chromatogram of the target ion (for example, see Patent Literature 1 or 2).